Charles Wang on WFAN

The Charles Wang, Mike Francesa interview finally happened today at 4 pm. It featured a lot of Lighthouse talk and some hockey talk for about what seemed like an hour (could be more, could be less). In retrospect it showed a few things about each person we did or didn’t know.
First off, Wang is still very confident that his Oct. 3rd deadline will be met with a positive green light for the project to continue. Wang explained the process and gave a nice “shout out” to the Town of Hempstead for a good job on going through the zoning approval. Charles also told Francesa that he is planning to attend the September 22 game in Kansas city but their has been no negotiation with Kansas city or any other Municipalities. Later as the talk shifted to hockey Wang let the cat out of the bag sort of speak revealing that head coach Scott Gordon has 2 years remaining on his contract with the Islanders. He is positive that the Islanders have a better team on the ice this year and is confident that there will be much improvement. When asked what his biggest regret was while owning the Isles Wang responds by surprisingly say that he regrets not hiring Garth Snow as the General Manager over Neil Smith the first time(interesting). Later on Wang Thanked the fans for their patients and tells them they are going to stick to the rebuild process.
There is way more to the interview than just that , Something Jim Baumbach of Newsday noticed today was that Mike Francesa knows nothing about the Lighthouse Project (something I already knew after calling one time to correct him about wrong information he said on the air in which he proceeded to tell me I’m wrong). Baumbach wrote this in his article on the interview:

“Francesa really knows very little about the Lighthouse Project and the issues surrounding it. He also seems to pushing Kate Murray's talking point that he should rebuild Nassau Coliseum instead of the Lighthouse Project. Which leaves out the fact that Nassau County owns the Coliseum, not Wang. Francesa has as much right to re-do the Coliseum as Wang does“

IM GLAD SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT! Mike Francesa started by mention the light rail system (which is non existent in the project) and was immediately corrected by Charles Wang who said that is not a part of this project. This is the issue I battled with Francesa over, Where he told me I was wrong, wouldn’t let me get my point across and cut me off so he could go on god for saken rant on a subject he even admitted to know little about!( sorry that still makes me angry even a couple months later.) Anyway moving back to the interview Francesa touched upon the idea of just an arena and we all know why so I will not go into why its not economically feasible or how the county doesn’t have the money to renovate or build a new arena. Later Francesa asks (with his usual nasty tone) “why are you playing a game in Kansas City?” Wan responded simply and gentlemanlike because the LA kings wanted us to play them there and the game was no way intended to be a threat, in fact it was scheduled prior to all the Lighthouse downturn during the winter months. Throughout the interview Francesa made factual mistakes or misread information. At one point the misspoke (or actually thought) there was a hearing on Oct 3, which is the deadline Charles Wang has set for a ya or nay on the project . Wang quickly corrected him yet again and said he is optimistic that they will get a green light for the project. Also later on Francesa misread an Newsday article and kept saying Dipietro could miss the season and when he asked Wang he seemed shocked by even the mention of that. Wang later said DP is on course and "some of these media reporters should be GMs they seem to know more.” Once again Newsday’s Jim Baumbach had an opinion on Mike’s miscue:

“Francesa misinterpreted Arthur Staple's column today, repeatedly mentioning a story that said DiPietro could miss the season. Don't know where Francesa read that. Not here. Wang basically said, "What are you talking about?" Francesa then read the beginning of Staple's column without ever mentioning what he was reading or what paper it was from”

I also got the feeling at times that even though Francesa admittedly knows little about the project he seems to have an opinion already formulated in his head. Near the end of the interview Francesa called the Lighthouse “outrageously expensive” , I mean don’t get me wrong $3.7 billion is a lot of money, but Francesa makes it seem like the whole project is outrages. The Hot headed Mike Francesa that we all know but may not love also showed up for a brief appearance while debating Charles Wang. The brief debate happened as Mike said he feels there are enough people on Long Island but got the statistics wrong and was once again corrected by Wang and disagreed on what Long Island’s identity is and what it should be. It was finally wrapped up by Wang saying that after Oct 3 all options are on the table including a possible refurbished or new Nassau coliseum ( just to name one) but, that he is still confident they will get a positive answer on the deadline.
At points this may have seemed like I may have bashed Mike Francesa but that was not my intention. He is a highly respected media personality in NY sports and knows a lot too. Hockey and the Lighthouse really aren’t things he knows a lot about as Jim Baumbach and I have noticed during the interview with his slip ups in information and his misinterpretation of Newsday’s hockey writer. Im glad that Charles Wang finally got on WFAN and gave some more press to the Islanders and the Lighthouse project. I also give credit to Mike Francesa although wrong and at times hot headed, for at least trying today understand some more about the Project, even promising Charles Wang that he will look into the project more and if he sees it helps Long Island he will become a supporter. Click Here to listen to the Interview and defiantly check out Jim Baumbach’s opinion on today’s interview.